Latest / Reframe First / Lorraine Woodward (Becoming RentABLE) | Transforming Accessible Short-Term Rentals

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Lorraine Woodward (Becoming RentABLE) | Transforming Accessible Short-Term Rentals · Reframe First

• Oleksij Rak: hey guys, welcome to another episode of Reframe First, the podcast where we have honest conversations with business leaders about market about challenges they're working through, about the bets they're making. I'm Alexey, I'm the host here and let me welcome our today's guest, Lorraine Lorraine Woodward: So in regard to a niche population, you know, we don't look at ourselves as a niche population. And what we do look at is what are your needs today and making sure that we meet your needs. And so today you may have, I have different needs at 64 than I did at 54. And so that's our goal is to be able to identify what your needs are and finding those accessible properties. Oleksij Rak: Woodward. And Lorraine is CEO and founder of AdBecoming Rentable. And ⁓ hi Lorraine, it's really great to have you here. Lorraine Woodward: Thank you. I'm delighted to be here. those properties that will meet your needs with emphasis of, you know, disability, mobility, cognitive vision and hearing. And so it's really changed the way we present ourselves and getting away from ⁓ And I do think you know, that is a challenge. ⁓ you're in these population. You're a niche business. You only target this small sector of the industry. No, actually, we. Oleksij Rak: Yeah, Rentable a platform dedicated to creating social change in how short-term rental industry looks ⁓ by advocating and educating about accessible short-term rentals the areas of mobility, cognition, hearing, aging, ⁓ sight, and on. They have quite a lot of accessible properties already on their platform. From what I learned, are 2024 gift winner and you were nominated as FocusWire's Hot 25 Travel Startups for ⁓ 26. So Lorraine, what are you building at Becoming Rentable? What's your mission ⁓ what it all about? Could you tell us? ⁓ Lorraine Woodward: We target a very large part of this industry we are about your needs today or the needs of a family member today. Oleksij Rak: By calling it niche, I didn't mean the population niche, but rather a business niche. So there is a big gap between supply and demand. And this is a business to work on. And that's great that you're addressing it. regards to user acquisition, we touched this point a few times. And you mentioned you are not doing any paid marketing. Lorraine Woodward: Yes. Sure, so Becoming Rentable is a listing platform of accessible short-term rentals, primarily in North America. We are expanding as every day we get emails from all over the world, hey, we ⁓ you evaluate our property? And the company got started because ⁓ family, I have muscular dystrophy, use an electric wheelchair, and our two boys have muscular dystrophy. Oleksij Rak: On the other hand, there were Google AI issues when Google started providing AI answers. It hit everyone because it just took away maybe 40 to 50 percent of overall traffic the final websites. So what are your acquisition channels and ⁓ ⁓ affect you or did benefit from that? ⁓ How it work? Lorraine Woodward: So trying to find a place that we all could access that was big enough that had the features that we need was very difficult. And I mean, we even did the Disney trip in Florida and didn't meet our needs. Believe or not, their buses had two tie downs. ⁓ So the time, my boys are now 28 and 30. And so ⁓ it was time before cell phones. So I'm really dating myself. You know, I'm going to address the AI in that we are very fortunate. We're working with Duke University. This is our second year and working with students in the master level, and we are currently working them with creating an AI product for our company and that AI and it won't be live from for a couple of years because it is again, it's students. Each student had in their master's program have to give. Oleksij Rak: Mm. Lorraine Woodward: So my husband and I had to divide and conquer. He would take one child on one bus. I would take a child on another bus because we needed three tie downs and the bathrooms weren't accessible. I'm going, this is ridiculous. Why is this so difficult? So my boys are graduating high school and it's like, I want them to have a different adult experience than what they've had in their childhood and to be able to go and see and go look at colleges, you know, do that as a family. And we couldn't. 520 hours to an effort. And so a number of students picked us. And where that AI is coming in is through photo recognition. So that we would be able to go in and work with the platform with this technology to look at a property and go, oh, you do have a 32 inch door, a 36 inch door. You do have So I ended up building a accessible short-term rental for my family. First reaction was, mom, why are you doing this? Because it's a beach property. And they're like, we can't get on the beach. can't, you know, it was all about, we couldn't do this, we couldn't do that. So now we have this accessible short-term rental and the boys love it. And they see what they can do because the property does meet their needs. a zero threshold entry. ⁓ you have a ramp. And so AI, I believe, will really help us expanding to these platforms that we can go in and first tier have AI identify the images as it relates to disability. And then it will take less human time. And we do believe that human element is critical. and how they can go eat sushi with their friends and how they can go to the bar down the street and how they can get on the boardwalk. And they love it because they are not excluded from living a life with their friends. And to my surprise, when we started renting it, we've already had over 500 families rent our short-term rental, is their stories were all the same. And their stories were, in our verification efforts that a machine just can't go in and look and say, check, yes, you have it. it can help us in that first look-see of a property might have. So in regard to AI, ⁓ we hopeful. I am about debt. I don't like debt. My husband and I bootstrapped our business. it's really hard to find a place like this that meets our family's needs. And so I started looking into the industry and looking at how do they address accessibility. And what we found out in 2021 is that the industry paid minimal to hardly any attention to what accessible travel looked like in the lodging industry. It was all about wheelchair access, ADA, but no details. And so we haven't paid for those AI services. We also believe in education in that I like the idea of educating these students of what accessibility means. Commonly, as we work with different colleges and universities, we are in that educational front. So when they go out to the workforce, then they understand and think about accessibility in the work that they do. Oleksij Rak: you Lorraine Woodward: And I'm all about wheelchair access. Don't get me wrong, I use a wheelchair. But our friends, my mother-in-law who used a walker, had different needs. My boys and I have different needs. And so that's when Becoming Rentable got started, of really looking into what the problem is and what the solution is. Oleksij Rak: Okay. Lorraine Woodward: from an engineering perspective, from a medical perspective. And that is also how we grow our knowledge in being inclusive and educating that next generation. Oleksij Rak: Okay, and when did you start it? Is it really like two years ago? Lorraine Woodward: We're young, we're five years old this year, and our platform is the only platform that addresses specifically and exclusively accessibility. And so when we started the business, we really looked at what is accessibility, and we took it from the standpoint going beyond a wheelchair. So we grouped together mobility, which is people who need and use. Oleksij Rak: Yeah, Yeah, that's a great idea to make, ask students help you out. AI can do a lot for you, like in terms of like seeing the property and in terms of like getting this not certification, help in your, helping out to get this verification to check all, ⁓ all need. Like if everything in place based on like ⁓ the photo. Lorraine Woodward: I'm in so Yes. ⁓ wheelchairs, walkers, crutches, and canes. And then we brought out our neo-divergent, our cognitive community, people who have needs in the area of autism, Alzheimer's, depression, mental illness. We're seeing a lot of that post-COVID. And now we're going into creating certifications, verifications for hearing and vision. So really looking at a full scope of what accessibility So part of our brand awareness and SEO we ended ⁓ building an short-term rental property. We bought ⁓ a ⁓ 1940s We it. ⁓ And then if go to our website, you'll see the little yellow house. ⁓ And it is model property of mobility, vision, hearing. Oleksij Rak: Yeah. Lorraine Woodward: ⁓ needs are. So that's the first thing that we have dealt with. The second thing is if you look at your three major platforms, your Booking.com, your Airbnb, your Verbo, you look at what your filter choices are because that's what is going to allow what populates. And so what we found out is we had one platform with eight Yeah, vision and hearing. An example of what accessibility means in equals. Being being a lovely property that you would want to go and stay with that happens to have these features. Because we knew that education is key ⁓ as build what we're doing to not only the short-term rental industry, but thinking about that next generation. filters another platform with 10 and one with 16. And yet they were very broad in nature. They would say wheelchair accessible ADA. But what does that mean? ⁓ So students from the occupational therapy community can look at this property and we can educate them and the benefits a medical perspective, from short-term rental programs in a college and university, ⁓ to host they can then touch, feel, see what this equals. And so that will also affect our ⁓ customer acquisition. Oleksij Rak: Yeah, we have like 63 different filters on the car. Lorraine Woodward: We do have 63, we're overachievers because we believe that it's about your choices. What do you need in a short-term rental? You know, for me, I do need a zero threshold entry my wheelchair. My boys can go into a property that has one step. My mother-in-law who used Walker could go in one step. And so we looked at, do you need grab bars in the bathroom? ⁓ So that if they know and understand, then the acquisition is less expensive and broadens what this means. Do you need a will under sink? Is your mirror at a certain height that you need? And so we built ⁓ and ⁓ 63 filters for mobility and cognitive so that you're the one that can determine what your needs are. So by limiting your ⁓ really it limits how many people will rent. Oleksij Rak: And what does your customer acquisition look like right now? Lorraine Woodward: right now we're at zero cost because we have not Oleksij Rak: Yeah, but they are still coming from somewhere, be it like social media, Google, or education. Lorraine Woodward: Right, so it's through that education. Right, it is through, you know, making sure that we have our labeling, you know, in place of everything that is accessible and any property that is on our map. It is getting on podcasts, it is being featured in a newsletter, magazine. And so our reach those properties due to lack of information. Oleksij Rak: Awesome. like from what we research, there is quite a demand and not as like there's big mismatch between demand and supply. Lorraine Woodward: is challenging because we're not spending money. At what point, right, so at what point do we make those financial investments? as a small business owner, you know, that's the challenge that I have. You have to make money to spend money. And ⁓ do we do that? ⁓ ⁓ doing that through a number of different revenue streams. You know, there is. There's a challenge to our business too. So what we know is if we look at just the United States and we look at people who have mobility, cognitive, full range of disabilities, it's over 100 and I believe 123 million people. The numbers that we see a lot of times is one in four people have a disability or Oleksij Rak: Yeah, you're spreading the word basically. Yeah. Lorraine Woodward: I mean, that is what's helping build our business. Is it through consulting that, you know, a company will us to come in and meet with their engineers and meet with their IT department and how to build, you know, ⁓ three new filters to their program? ⁓ it, you know, ⁓ ⁓ verifying state parks properties? Is it, you know, doing, creating 72 million have a disability. What we don't look at, and that is based on the ages of 43 to, gosh, my numbers are wrong, so please excuse me, we'll say maybe it's 30 to 43. It's a very small age range. But we wanna look from birth to 16. We wanna look at 18 to 43, and we wanna look at our seniors. So if you look at our population up into your senior years, STR, or Instagram messaging. So there's a lot of different ways that we are building that awareness and bringing in revenue so that we can, be able to reach more people through, looking at what it takes to get a customer. That's over 123 million people that we're reaching. So we know that the interest and demand is there. The challenge that we have is the booking platform still have limited information. People don't understand what equals an accessible short-term rental. What does that mean? What does that include? So there's a lot of education that needs to take place so that the property side of it Oleksij Rak: Yeah, that's awesome. Yeah, this is like, this is how organic traffic works. And quite likely that like you build the brands and people come to you by knowing your brand by searching for your brand. And second one is like somebody is Googling, I don't know, me where I travel with my disabilities quite likely will pop up in the top of the Google search results. Lorraine Woodward: they can identify what they have their property. For example, an important feature is a hard surface driveway. I need to be able to get my vehicle to the property. I then need to be able to get out of my vehicle and then go to an accessible entrance. It may be the front door. It may be a garage door. It may be the back door. But what is that entrance that I can get into? If you look at short-term rental and you Google it and accessibility, we're commonly number one. And so we're usually at the top three, if not always number one. We are very specialized. We are currently the only company that we're aware of across the globe that is making this to expand accessibility into the short-term rental. Oleksij Rak: Thank Lorraine Woodward: And so we'll stop there to look at, okay, why, you know, so when people think of an short-term rental, they may go, ⁓ my gosh, I've got to tear down walls. I need to redo my bathroom. I need to, it's going to cost a lot of money. But if we just look at that element of access, you may already have it in place and it will cost no money. But again, you may not think of that. So then we look at the door. in a way don't want to be the only one. But we're delighted that we are and we are capturing the attention ⁓ of of state government, of other that are considering the importance of ⁓ meeting the of customers who have disabilities. how wide is your door? It's the information that allows somebody to be able to know if your property is accessible or not. For me, I'm a wide load. So can I get through a 32 inch door, which is the common size of front a side door, or a back door? Yes, I And sometimes you may know that I'm there because I'll leave little trademarks of me going through the door. Oleksij Rak: Yeah, you are doing a really big job of like re-educating the market or educating the market in this case. it's ⁓ hard in the beginning. When it gets going, there be other players who want to also pick up. Lorraine Woodward: hope that there are some players that are listening that are interested in the work that we're doing and want to reach out to us so that we can continue. You know, I think we're at that, you know, usually it's so many days to see if your business survives, then it's your three year mark. Well, now we're approaching our five year mark. How sustainable are we and how can we grow? And so we were at a critical point of building our business now. So I like a 36 inch door, which is a little over a dollar more than a 32 inch door. So if you're looking at investment, you're building or renovating a property. If you have a 36 inch door, you're broadening who can reach and enter and book that property by the simple, simpleness of saying, my doors are 36 inches. So I'm going, yay, this is an option. Now you have the driveway. I can now. Oleksij Rak: Yeah. Lorraine Woodward: now is the time that we're evaluating what is that next step for us. Oleksij Rak: And exactly my question. Like what is it ⁓ you? Like what you're betting on and like what you're building right now. Like what Lorraine Woodward: wheel my wheelchair through the hard surface and the hard surface can be pavers. You know, it can be the concrete, the asphalt. I don't access sand, dirt, grass, but I know what you have. Now I can get through your 32 or 36 inch door. So we look at that. We look at, I call it a bump ditty bump. What's the threshold like? You know, if it is zero and I can slide in, great. You know, it is our reach. It is a lot in progress. And it's interesting because our progress is taking this to new ⁓ like global business travel, like with hospitals and their foundations. You know, one of the greatest needs that we see, ⁓ and advice to investors, Oleksij Rak: What's in progress? ⁓ Mm-hmm. Lorraine Woodward: But sometimes with that two inch threshold, I have to kind of go back and give me a running start and then, know, and I can go through. But if platform at the front door is limited, then that may be a challenge for me. But it's all about that information do you have. So ⁓ we're going in and looking at choices, you know, it's very simple. Can I my van in? Oleksij Rak: you Lorraine Woodward: If you want to invest in an accessible short-term rental, build it, include it near a rehab facility or a hospital. That is one of the greatest needs that we see in the need of accessible short-term rentals because medical have their areas of expertise. We know Boston has a great program, Cleveland Children's Hospital. We know that Duke University, Chapel Hill. to your property? Can I get to an accessible door? Can I go through that accessible door? Can I go to the bathroom? Can I sleep? And can I participate in a family activity? So that's what we look at. And we look at that in a very descriptive way. But it's getting this information to A, our properties. And then our next audience, yeah. Oleksij Rak: Mm-hmm. Lorraine Woodward: And so people come in from seven hours away, 10 hours away, and they have to be there multiple days and they can't stay in a hotel. So we had, you know, one person who reached out to me at nine o'clock at night. This lady was crying hysterically that her husband had cancer and could not find an accessible place to stay and he couldn't stay ⁓ in hotel because of the germs. Oleksij Rak: Yeah, it's also about kitchen appliances, can you access them? yeah, I see the room behind you and it's designed for accessibility. Lorraine Woodward: I mean, it's interesting. And she's like, my husband will die if we don't find a place for him to be. And so we frantically looked and looked and we found a place. It was an hour and a half away. There was not anything in the Raleigh-Durham Chapel Hill Market that was closer to where they needed. They were from West Virginia. And we then immediately started doing research looking at the top 20 medical facilities to find out where do people The kitchen's a tricky one. We have, so now we're looking at the people who can benefit and use this accessible short-term rental, which we know the numbers are great. We're looking at over a billion people worldwide. So it's like, all right, we got the people. We've got to get the message to the people that these properties exist, which is a challenge because historically, people with different types of disabilities, they don't even put it in their radar and think about, who are coming in for treatments, hospitalizations, and have to stay overnight or for two days or be observed. And that was their greatest challenge, is finding places outside of the hotels that met their needs. And it still continues to be one of the greatest needs. In fact, we have a property, the Little Yellow House. that they can do this because historically they haven't been able to. And so we've got to look at and share this information. When it comes to the kitchen, we hear, you know, different schools of thought. One school of thought is it's vacation. I'm not cooking. We're going out, we're ordering out, we want to be able to, if we order out, do we have a place that we can eat? We received a phone call from a family. Husband was diagnosed with a progressive form of cancer. The doctors gave him 40 days. Their residence was not large enough to bring in a hospital bed. So they asked if they could rent this property. And we said, sure. They said, we need it today. I said, sure. But we don't know how long we'll stay. I said, no problem. It's there for as long as you need it. i.e. a countertop that I can roll under, kitchen table, what are the ways and areas that I can eat. Secondly, do you have a place that maybe I can reheat my food? A microwave. We see a lot of microwaves that are over the stove ⁓ and accessible for somebody who's short or somebody that's in a wheelchair. You know, it's an easy fix. You can go down to your local So they said, well, maybe 40, 60 days. I said, great. So they moved in. They had the hospital bed. They had all the features that they needed. On the 14th day, called me and said, thank you for your rental. Our dad passed away at 14 days. And in those 14 days, we were able to play games, sing songs, just focus on our time with our dad and our husband, or the lady's husband. And if it weren't for your property, Walmart, Costco, any big box store and $69, get a microwave, put it on the counter and you're good. And so as far as the Wheel Under sinks, the elevated dishwashers, different appliances, there is a group that say, you know what, we can't afford to eat out and we need this. And that's the beauty of our filtering is that again, if you need that, then we would still be looking at how we could get a hospital bed into our home. And so it's an incredible gift that you're also giving families in already difficult time. And we don't think about that part of what an accessible short-term rental bring to families. And are seeing more more diagnosis because our ⁓ community becoming more more advanced. ⁓ we have those filters that you can choose. So those properties will populate to the top look for that. And so we do address that. But again, as we're looking at the host, the short-term rental property, if you have it, say it, ⁓ show If you don't have it, it's not included. And so we try to look at both Oleksij Rak: you Lorraine Woodward: thus a greater need of the benefits of an accessible short-term rental. And if you need appliances, we identify elements of what is accessible. And I can just go on probably in talking without you asking me a question. So I'll take a breath, drink some water, and let you ask me a question and make sure I'm on track and where you want to go. Oleksij Rak: That's a story. Thanks for sharing. I didn't know what to ask Nasty Bim on. Lorraine Woodward: It is. And I ⁓ you know, I'll you one more story ⁓ and hopefully will make a difference. I was at our Carolina Beach, North Carolina property, the one I built for our family, and we had to pay for it. So we had the second floor, a short term rental and a 16 year old boy comes out of a van and he says, excuse me, ma'am, is this your house? And I said, it is. Oleksij Rak: Yeah. Sure, yeah, That's awesome because it's really interesting. One of my questions was, first, you're certifying these properties to be accessible for different groups of people. is part of your business that you do. And of questions was, what does certification mean operationally for you? ⁓ How hard it to certify? How do you do it? ⁓ Lorraine Woodward: And his name is Gideon and Gideon said, I want to thank you for this property because it's the first time I will be able to take a shower while on vacation. And I said, well, you're more than welcome. So on the third floor with our family private residence. And next day I go and I knock on the door ⁓ and say, come in. And I said, hey Gideon, how was your shower? And he goes, fine. So it's interesting that you use the word certified. And when we started becoming rentable, now this is timely, this is good, this is good, we certified properties. One of the challenges in our business is we use the word certification. ⁓ And ⁓ has a fear factor in our industry. And the fear is we are not compliant. In the United States, it's to the ADA. Oleksij Rak: Okay. Lorraine Woodward: I'm like, dude, what do you mean fine? You were so excited your first shower on vacation. And he said, guess what? And I said, what? He said, I was able to pop popcorn all by myself. I said, you were? Because yeah, I didn't have to ask mom. And I said, that's your favorite part of this. And he said, no. And it's like, wait a minute. So not the shower, not popping popcorn. He said, no. He goes, guess what? I was able to reach the thermostat by myself. And I didn't have to battle with mom. and that we're afraid that we're going to get sued. So we're not going to get our property certified. And so as of tomorrow, we are changing the certification to be verification. And because what we do is we go in and we verify. You tell me that these are the features you have. Now we need a third party to go in and verify that this information indeed and turning down the thermostat. She always likes it really cold and I know. And I said, that's your favorite part. And he said, no. I said, you're killing me. He goes, guess what? I can reach the light switch. So when mom went to bed, I could go turn on the lights and play games without her knowing it. And I said, 16 year old, get it. That's your favorite part. He said, no. He said, my favorite part was being independent. is what you have because large platform Airbnb does identify that they do they they have a team that evaluate if you have it or not. Unfortunately that isn't always the case and it's a very lengthy process so for becoming rentable we want to make sure and that is our business with third party we go in we verify. Oleksij Rak: Yeah. Lorraine Woodward: And that's what an accessible short-term rental is all about. Oleksij Rak: That's awesome. That's really great what you're building there. Because you're like enabling other people to be independent. Lorraine Woodward: We can get this done in a 48-hour period. It is a virtual And the reason we went virtual versus going into a property is we want those that are visiting ⁓ because that's how you find a rental, we want to be able to determine what do they see? What does your guest look at? And we can say that, here is and live life as we all want to. Oleksij Rak: Yeah. Yeah. Thanks a lot for sharing that. I had other questions, but I don't think I should continue. really... Lorraine Woodward: there always can be a podcast number two. ⁓ I this opportunity to share story, to share the need that we have and encourage investors to look ⁓ at ⁓ leaving on the table and to make a difference in your community. Oleksij Rak: Yeah. Lorraine Woodward: the door. Here is how wide the door is. Here is the driveway. lot of times when we're verifying information, we actually find more features than the host because, I didn't know that was accessible. And we put in there. So we go in and we verify the information. It's free. You can go online and do a free assessment. Oleksij Rak: Yeah, thanks a lot for coming and I really appreciate you coming and sharing all these stories and you're building amazing products so best of luck for you in this challenge. Lorraine. Thanks for coming. Lorraine Woodward: Thank you very much. All right. Thank you. All right. All right. Thank you. Bye bye. where we'll go in and say, yes, you have these eight things that we're looking for that we could verify and give you that badge. Everybody wants a badge. So you can put it on your listing to say, we are becoming rentable verified property. So there's no guesses because for me, I go to a property and dad gummit, they identify all of this. They didn't say there's five steps to the entrance. Oleksij Rak: for sure. Lorraine Woodward: I just took for granted, they said they were accessible and now we're on vacation for a week and I can't get in the property and there's no other property and there's no hotel rooms that I can access. And so it's not like you can just go down the street and find another rental. So that verification is critical and key to continue to A, book your travel and expand this industry to a broader audience that hasn't been done before. Oleksij Rak: So you're sending some third party to do the check for you. ⁓ do you rely on the check itself? Because you should understand the actual need. Do ⁓ send a long checklist of that need to be checked there? ⁓ If do not have the problem of five steps, you may not even understand the problems. ⁓ Lorraine Woodward: That's who we are, yes. Right, when you go. Exactly. And that's what we look at. Oleksij Rak: That's no, you're looking for microwave, you know, how high it is and not for the stack. Lorraine Woodward: Mm-hmm. that's where we come in, is we go in and we look for those things. You not a verified property if we cannot see them. If we cannot see that there's an entrance to your home. If we can't get our car in your if we can't that access, then you may not qualify. But you may qualify for a cognitive. verification. You know, are you a property that is fragrance free? You know, do you have blackout curtains? You know, do you have dimmer switches? ⁓ people may go, wow, wait a minute, I have dimmer switches. We use fragrant free. We have blackout curtains. Those are accessible. You know, number one area of concern for people with cognitive disabilities, particularly Alzheimer's, autism is, have wonderers. You know, it's like, my gosh, there's a bunny outside. No, Lorraine, you can't go see the bunny right now. You need to stay in here and then we're gonna go out together. And that is by having a secondary lock that I can't reach in my wheelchair will allow me to be safe ⁓ in that short-term So I don't. go look for the bunny, follow the bunny, and now the bunny's down by the lake and I fall in the lake and I drowned. That is a huge fear factor. And so by having that secondary lock that costs less than $10, are going to broaden your exposure to an incredibly great audience. Oleksij Rak: And like in your, like from your data, from your experience, like which, which accessibility needs, like shows the biggest gap between like supply and demand. Like which, which needs are like covered the least. Lorraine Woodward: is supply and demand, we know it's the supply side that we're struggling with. So in the United States, are, gosh, how many now? I really should have checked my numbers a lot, but I think there's 2.1 million rentals, short-term rentals in the US, but yet there are less than 1200 accessible. short-term rentals. So that's 0.01 % of our inventory that's devoted to accessibility. But yet we have over 50 % of our population that need these features. So, you know, it is a missed opportunity. Basically, you are leaving money on the table right now if you're not addressing what features that you have that are accessible. So our challenge is looking at how do we get this information to the host, to builders, to property managers. It's like, ⁓ I don't have time to deal with that. We're busy enough. are you busy enough not to get more bookings, not to expand your reach? And certifications are verification. ⁓ I'm already saying certifications. like, it's $200. It is a subscription-based program. And yet, one verification label is less than one night stay in a property. And so your return on investment is substantial. But again, we do have this challenge of how do we get Oleksij Rak: Yeah. Lorraine Woodward: How do we get to even 1 %? We're proud that we have one of the largest listing of accessible short-term rentals in the US and Canada, but yet that's 1,200. I mean, we need 10,000. We need 100,000. I mean, that's not even one per metropolitan city in the US. and they're great names. mean, one of the examples I used, I'm from Arkansas. And at the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville, they have a huge sports population. 75,000 people come and watch the Razorbacks play football ⁓ basketball. Yet that community only has five accessible short-term rentals. So what about your alumni who are ⁓ of aging community? What about students with disabilities who want to come and look at their institution to to go to college, but yet they only have five rentals. Again, but you have 75,000 people coming into your community, you know, 20, 30 times a year to go to those sporting events. You know, again, I could use that in North Carolina where we are with Duke University, NC State Basketball, UNC. Think about those events that you have. What are the, for the DMOs? You know, what events entertainment conferences do you have where groups of people are coming but there's not a space for them to stay? Oleksij Rak: You mentioned DMOs. Do you try to partner with DMOs because that's this kind of their interest to grow this kind of niche? Lorraine Woodward: Right. again, our challenge is, so yes, we have that ⁓ we're seeing is DMOs get traffic from hotels. And but yet hotels are limited on how many accessible properties or rooms that they have. And so ⁓ again, DMOs, like the short term rentals, don't understand what that equals. And so it's been a slow process in getting that buy-in. And know that later on you're going to, ⁓ going to be talking about things like CAC. We're going to look at our CEO post brand awareness how do we do those customer acquisitions and ⁓ get information And that's what we're Unfortunately, for the industry of short-term rental, very limited research has been done. The stats have not been there to address this need. And we're a small, young company. You know, there's only a few employees, we've had four years of experience behind us. And I've the and I don't know if it's a good decision or not. is not to invest in paid marketing. it's like you're building the website, you are doing all of these things. I have struggled with looking ⁓ at ⁓ and how we address growing. Oleksij Rak: Thank You are a young company that's not investing in paid marketing, but somehow you partnered with Expedia Group. Lorraine Woodward: Well, you know, know ⁓ have done everything, ⁓ that we have done has been at zero cost to our business. We have not paid for any. so consequently, are ⁓ our has been good because we have it's again and negative. Yes, we've worked with Expedia for a couple of years. Oleksij Rak: Could you tell me who? Tell us more about it. Lorraine Woodward: looking at addressing that one of the challenges that they have and booking platforms do have and that's the education that there is lack of information for host and what accessibility means. we were chosen to be part of an accelerator program that Expedia did three years ago. And there were 12 companies that they chose to be a part of this accelerator program. six from the US, six from outside the US, and we were one of them. Again, looking at doing something that nobody else had done. And with Expedia owning VIRBO, we were a natural fit. And I do credit our growth to the work that we have done and the support that we continue to receive from VIRBO. But again, ⁓ been a slow educational process. and getting hosts to understand, and then getting companies like Verbo and Booking and Airbnb to expand their filters. ⁓ when you are a large company, the process of expanding those filters is time consuming ⁓ and And so the disadvantage us is that time frame. Oleksij Rak: Yeah. Lorraine Woodward: I'm like, are you serious that it's taken us two years to get to this point? I'm like, even though I'm in a wheelchair, I am fast. I am quick. I see the need. I just turned 64 two ago. And so ⁓ I'm the time is now. For me, I look at our two boys, and I don't want to wait two years. How can we quickly get this information out? What are the creative ways that ⁓ we make a difference and expand what accessible lodging equals. way that we've done it is work with state parks and looking at cabins, yurts and lodging units ⁓ really expanding traditional short-term rentals into outdoor hospitality. So in our industry, what ⁓ historically looked at are private homes, rooms like Airbnb does. condos, apartments, but what about those the outdoor hospitality? We're seeing, you know, with the economic times that we're in right now people are looking for what are affordable ways to travel for work, for vacations, for family events, and we're going to outdoor hospitality. And so we have designed a unit called the Accessible Retreat. It's a 400 square foot mobile park unit that is $120,000 that can be purchased, return on investments about five years, which is pretty great. And we've gone to the state parks. we're looking at, again, how do we expand this need Oleksij Rak: Hmm. Lorraine Woodward: that our world has to travel. Oleksij Rak: Yeah, yeah, with regards to like the needs that the world has, like for what trends are you seeing like recently on the markets, like with new generation of travelers, with, you know, post-COVID times when travel became necessity like travel should be, as an industry should be booming right And what do you see? What's changing in your opinion? Lorraine Woodward: You know, we hope what is changing, our attitudes, the ⁓ a growth in a market that they've never seen before, alleviating the fear factor that you're not going to get sued if you a verified product, ⁓ our property. in the United States has been ⁓ our greatest challenge. that people are afraid of getting sued. We are a world that, know, hey, don't like it, I'm going to sue them. But, you know, again, I find from our rentals that people who stay appreciate what we have because they don't see it. Whereas my neighbor next has an accessible short-term rental, but not marketed that way. They have the elevator. They have the zero threshold entry. They have the white doors. They have a lot of features. But they have spent more money in people vomiting down the steps from drinking too much, tearing down doors. But yet we don't look at that. We're not considering, you know, how do you verify how much people drink when they come to your property? And as I look at our between the two properties, we've made more money. We've had more rentals we've no lawsuits. so, but when you hear the word accessible short-term rental, there is a fear that you're going to get, your property is going to get beat up because of the wear and tear use of ⁓ a wheelchair or walker is going to cost a lot. Oleksij Rak: Mm-hmm. Lorraine Woodward: and that you're going to get sued. So how do we eliminate those fears so that we can have more properties that meet people's needs? It's broadening that exposure. And so that's one of the trends that I hope that we'll see. Like interview, I ⁓ am ⁓ asked participate in more interviews, speaking at more conferences, ⁓ because trend that we're seeing is the trend of accessible travel. The accessible travel happens to be ⁓ looking at air travel and hotels. We're seeing a lot of information to the various media markets addressing those two areas. So how do we bring into play the short-term rental? know, ⁓ from Business Travel Association reached out to me a couple of years ago. Oleksij Rak: and Lorraine Woodward: and this gentleman was on the board of GBTA and said, Lorraine, thank you for changing how we look at global business travel. And I'm like, okay, you're welcome. And I'm like, okay, why are you really calling me? Are you trying to sell me something? And he said, no. He said, historically, business travel ⁓ ground, ⁓ and hotel. But businesses are missing the opportunity of hiring people with disabilities. They are missing the opportunity of retention of community activity because the employees now can rent a short-term rental. So where they couldn't maybe stay in a hotel or there was no rooms for them, there's a new option that we've never had before. And that is an accessible short-term rental. So businesses now have broadened their employee scope. They've broadened retention and their businesses can grow in a different way that they haven't grown before because this new option. And ⁓ never would have thought about that. ⁓ Oleksij Rak: Yeah, mean access to like different group of employees basically. Yeah, that's really interesting. like were talking like ⁓ you this point like that market is not seeing some opportunities. Like what is there on the market that market is not seeing yet? What do you see like? Lorraine Woodward: I think it is, again, this idea that it's expensive, that they see, ⁓ I'm watching HGTV and they're making a house accessible. And it's like, ⁓ we need to tear down this wall. We need to add these different features. And it's just going to be costly. Well, again, by having 63 filters, it's about choices. It's not, you know, Can it be expensive? Absolutely. If you are building from scratch, it's not even 10 % more ⁓ materials. The example with the doors, again, it's a little over $1 per door ⁓ you look at 36-inch doors versus 32-inch doors. A of misconceptions. ⁓ Oleksij Rak: if you're at the point when you're the property because when it's done, you know it's done. Lorraine Woodward: Right, exactly. So those are our greatest challenges is the misconceptions, understanding of it is ⁓ and magnitude ⁓ of reach and the need that we have. It's not a discussion point. ⁓ When we about return on investment, we don't always include. our disability community. It's been a community across many markets that just haven't been able to come to the table, be a part of that conversation. ⁓ we are looking to be included in these conversations as a real player in building this industry. Oleksij Rak: My next one would be like regarding website basically, maybe your web platform. And people with disabilities, besides having 63 filters, probably you need to have some kind of ⁓ specialized experience, like user interfaces. And probably see something that other big players are not seeing yet. ⁓ So like do most platforms unintentionally fail? people with disabilities during search, during booking phases. Lorraine Woodward: What they fail in time and time again looking at their content, ⁓ ⁓ I mean, even the larger plug-in ⁓ that provide different plug-ins are not including people with disabilities. You know, there are a number of tools out there that help generate your but yet what they are including is information related to disability. You know, they are looking at your demographics. They're looking at houseboats. They're looking at information that is not inclusive. Again, you look across the board at filters. large to medium-sized booking platforms have no information about inclusion, or they have the acronym of ADA, barrier free. But what does that mean? And there's no additional information there. So as we look ⁓ our communication, our visual photographs, ⁓ few platforms include photographs of people with disabilities enjoying a vacation. are working at home. Look at commercials. Right now, Verbo has Ken and Barbie as their new branding And no accessibility component to that. Looking at booking.com and the celebrities that they have, ⁓ even background information that's a part of their commercial ⁓ is inclusive ⁓ of with walker. ⁓ a cane, a wheelchair, somebody a temporary disability. So again, that inclusion ⁓ really our full industry. So even the backend of ⁓ what takes ⁓ to in the acquisition of a customer, those products are not inclusive. And why aren't they inclusive? If their customer is going to gain and this information to bring in new revenue, why are they not including in having access to disability? What is that push point for them to not be inclusive? Oleksij Rak: Yeah. Yeah, yeah, I agree. Lorraine Woodward: I'm, I hate people that are listening, you know, reach out to me at Lorraine at becomingrentable.com. You know, I would love to hear from you. How can we be a part of that customer acquisition in the products that you are selling for these strategic marketing activities that we're not a part of? We want to be a part of, we need to be a part of so that we can have this expansion. We all have the same goal. You know, and we are, we are a business. You know, we do spend money, you know, in the United States, almost $700 million is what somebody with a disability has in expendable cash. That's a lot of money, but it's being left on the table because we're not ⁓ Oleksij Rak: Yeah. And that's a great niche for you actually. reading the numbers, reading the like demand numbers and ⁓ like 1200 properties, it's like, it's a great niche.